


the aborted wedding

by marsbrover



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: End of CoE, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 14:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10766550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsbrover/pseuds/marsbrover
Summary: This takes place immediately after the end of Career of Evil - like, seconds after the end. Just a little thought exercise I wanted to play out. Some possible spoilers if you haven't read CoE yet.[working on a longer fic set further in the future to hopefully post later - if you guys like this that is :P]





	the aborted wedding

Seeing Strike felt like waking up from a mystifying, sojourning dream. Robin’s mind, so precise and quick in cases, finally drew together the strands of her personal life like the edges of a net. She had let them keep her from pursuing her dream. She had let him take away her freedom and her health. She had let Matthew mock her, demean her, insult her, insinuate she was cheating because he had cheated, slept with Sarah bloody Shadlock for eighteen months and invited her to the wedding. Eighteen months, Robin realized, could not be called a mistake. Eighteen months was long enough to fall in love, to make plans for the future. She had let him keep her from leaving.

 

Robin smiled at Matthew and squeezed his hand. 

 

“It’s been fun. Well, parts of it.”

 

She turned and walked down the steps, down the aisle. Sarah Shadlock was sitting right at the end of the pew. She twisted Matthew's ring off her long finger and held it out to her.

 

“Enjoy the consolation prize. You really earned it.”

 

Her face was glowing the way a bride’s should. She breezed down the aisle, and suddenly “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child played in her head. Somehow, today, it didn’t remind her of lying in bed after she left school. It made her straighten her shoulders and caused a hint of a smile to slowly bloom on her face. 

 

“You coming?” she said as she reached the church doors, throwing a mischevious look at Strike. “I’m in the mood for a burger.”

 

She waited as limped towards her - she could see that he hadn’t slept, hadn’t showered, and on closer inspection, it seemed his suit had seen better days. The congregation sat rapt, in awe, or maybe shock, of her calmness, her poise, her radiance. Matthew still stood by the priest, staring as at a professor with an accent he couldn’t place. He hadn’t moved, his hand still held slightly out from his body. 

 

Cormoran thought of the picture Charlotte had sent after her wedding, eyes full of grief and longing. He had not often seen her happy, and he was sure he had never seen her look like Robin did now. He had thought before that Robin wasn’t beautiful like Charlotte, but he suddenly saw that Robin’s face expressed everything he lo- everything he  _ liked _ about her. She reached out her hand and he grinned. 

 

Matthew would hate this. 


End file.
